West Coast Eagles

West Coast Eagles
Names
Full name	West Coast Eagles
Nickname(s)	Eagles, West Coast
2018 season
After finals	Premiers
Home-and-away season	2nd
Leading goalkicker	Jack Darling (48)
Club details
Founded	1986 (1986)
Colours	royal blue,      gold
Competition	Australian Football League (AFL)
Owners	West Australian Football Commission (WAFC)
Chairman	Russell Gibbs
CEO	Trevor Nisbett
Coach	Adam Simpson
Captain(s)	Shannon Hurn
Premierships	4: 1992, 1994, 2006, 2018
Ground(s)	Optus Stadium (2018–) (capacity: 60,000)
Former ground(s)	WACA Ground (1987–2000) (capacity: 20,000)
	Subiaco Oval (1987–2017) (capacity: 43,500)
Training ground(s)	Lathlain Park
Uniforms
Home Away Alternate
Other information
Official website	westcoasteagles.com.au

The West Coast Eagles, also known simply as West Coast or The Eagles, is a professional Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League (AFL). Based in Perth, Western Australia, it represents its home state and the Perth metropolitan region. It trains at Lathlain Park and plays its home games at Perth Stadium, also known as Optus Stadium, in Burswood, having previously played at Subiaco Oval and the WACA Ground. The club is one of two AFL clubs based in Western Australia, the other being its main rival, the Fremantle Football Club.

West Coast was founded in 1986 as an expansion team. It entered the AFL, then known as the Victorian Football League, in 1987 along with Queensland's Brisbane Bears. It reached the finals series for the first time in 1988, and won its first premiership in 1992, having been defeated in the grand final the previous year. It is the first non-Victorian team to play in and win a grand final. The Eagles have since won three more premierships, in 1994, 2006 and 2018. The club is currently coached by Adam Simpson and captained by Shannon Hurn. From 2013 to 2018, the East Perth Football Club, which competes in the West Australian Football League (WAFL), served as West Coast's reserves team.^[1] From 2019 the Eagles will field a reserves team in the WAFL.^[2] The Eagles have won the second most premierships (four, second to Hawthorn)^[3] in the AFL era (1990 onwards) and are one of the most supported and financially dominant clubs in the league^[4].

History

The West Coast Eagles were selected in 1986 as one of two expansion teams to enter the Victorian Football League (VFL) the following season, along with the Brisbane Bears.^[5] Ron Alexander was appointed as the team's inaugural coach in September 1986, with the inaugural squad, comprising a majority of players from the West Australian Football League (WAFL), unveiled in late October.^[6] Ross Glendinning, recruited from North Melbourne, was made the club's first captain as one of the few players with previous VFL experience. The team's first senior match in the VFL was played against Richmond at Subiaco Oval in late March 1987, with West Coast defeating Richmond by 14 points.^[7] Having won eleven games and lost eleven games for the season, the club finished eighth out of fourteen teams. At the end of the season, John Todd, the coach of Swan Districts in the WAFL, replaced Alexander as West Coast's coach.^[8] The club made the finals for the first time in 1988, but lost form the following season, winning only seven games to finish 11th on the ladder.^[9] Todd was sacked at the end of the 1989 season, and was replaced by Michael Malthouse, who had previously coached Footscray.^[10] With the competition having rebranded itself as the Australian Football League (AFL) at the start of the 1990 season, West Coast finished third on the ladder at the conclusion of the home-and-away season, and progressed to the preliminary final before losing to Essendon, having been forced to play four consecutive finals in Melbourne.^[11]

Michael Gardiner contests a boundary throw-in against Collingwood during the 2005 season.

John Worsfold replaced Steve Malaxos as captain for the 1991 season, and the club finished the season as minor premiers for the first time, losing only three games.^[5] In the finals series, West Coast progressed to the grand final, but were defeated by Hawthorn by 53 points. Peter Sumich kicking 111 goals during the season, becoming the first West Coast player to reach a century of goals, as well as the first-ever left-footer.^[12] In 1992, West Coast finished fourth on the ladder, but again progressed to the grand final, defeating Geelong by 28 points to become the first team based outside Victoria to win a premiership.^[13] Having slipped to third in 1993, the club finished as minor premiers the following season, and went on to again defeat Geelong in the grand final to win its second premiership in three years.^[14] In 1995, a second AFL team based in Western Australia, the Fremantle Football Club, with the two clubs' subsequent rivalry branded as the "Western Derby".^[15] West Coast made the finals in every year that remained in the 1990s, but failed to reach another grand final, with a fourth-place finish in 1996 their best result.^[9] Worsfold retired at the end of the 1998 season, and was replaced by his vice-captain, Guy McKenna, who served as captain until his retirement two seasons later.^[16]

Malthouse left West Coast at the end of the 1999 season to take up the senior coaching position with Collingwood, and was replaced by Ken Judge, who had been coach of Hawthorn.^[17] The 2000 and 2001 seasons were marked by a rapid decrease in form after the loss of several key senior players, culminating in a 14th-place in 2001, at the time the worst in the club's history. Round eighteen of the 2000 season marked the club's final match at the WACA Ground, which had been used concurrently with Subiaco Oval since the club's inception.^[18] Judge was sacked at the end of 2001, and replaced by the club's former captain John Worsfold, who had been serving as assistant coach at Carlton.^[19] The club made the finals in 2002, 2003, and 2004, but each time failed to progress past the elimination final.^[9] Ben Cousins was made sole captain of the club in 2002, having shared the role with Dean Kemp the previous season.^[8] During this time, the team was boosted by a number of high picks in the AFL Draft gained as a result of the previous poor finishes. Chris Judd, who had been taken with pick three in the 2001 National Draft, won the Brownlow Medal as the best player in the competition in 2004, becoming the first West Coast player to win the award.^[20] In 2005, the Eagles finished second on the ladder after the regular season, and progressed to the grand final against Sydney, where they were defeated by four points.^[21] For the second consecutive year, the Brownlow Medal was won by an Eagles player, with Ben Cousins and Daniel Kerr finishing first and second, respectively.^[22] West Coast finished as minor premiers for a third time in 2006, with seventeen wins from 22 games.^[23] In the 2006 finals series, the club lost the qualifying final to Sydney by one point, but after defeating the Western Bulldogs and the Adelaide in the semi- and preliminary final, respectively, again progressed to the grand final, where the Eagles defeated Sydney by a point in an exact reversal of the score in the qualifying final.^[24] The two grand finals in 2005 and 2006 were part of a series of close games between the two clubs that resulted in a total difference of thirteen points across six games, an AFL record.^[25]

Daniel Chick and Tyson Stenglein in a marking contest against Sydney in the 2005 Grand Final.

The club finished third during the regular 2007 season, but after a series of late-season injuries lost both its games during the final series. During the past few seasons, the club had been impacted by a series of highly publicised off-field controversies involving allegations of recreational drug use, nightclub assaults, and links to outlawed motorcycle gangs. Michael Gardiner was traded after crashing his car while drunk, and Ben Cousins resigned the captaincy of the club prior to the 2006 season after being charged with evading a police breath-test, with Chris Judd taking over as captain. Cousins was sacked at the end of the 2007 season after being arrested for possession of drugs,^[26] while Judd requested to be traded back to Victoria, and was traded to Carlton in exchange for a key forward, Josh Kennedy, and several draft picks.^[27] Darren Glass, the club's full-back since the retirement of Ashley McIntosh in 2003, was then appointed captain.^[28] These controversies were followed by a series of poor seasons on-field, culminating in the club's first wooden spoon, after winning only four games in 2010.^[29] The three-year period between 2008 and 2010 was the longest time in the club's history without a finals appearance. Despite predictions of another bottom-four finish in 2011, West Coast won 16 games to finish in the top four, becoming the first team since the Brisbane Lions in 1998 and 1999 to reach a preliminary final after finishing last the previous season.^[30]

West Coast's strong form continued into 2012, losing the 2012 NAB Cup grand final to Adelaide and spending the early part of the season on top of the table. They eventually finished fifth and bowed out in the semi finals to Collingwood.^[31][32] The Eagles went into 2013 as premiership favourites, although injuries and poor form saw the club finish in thirteenth position on the ladder, with the club losing its final three games by an average of 71 points.^[33][34] Coach John Worsfold resigned on September 5, 2013.^[31]

Round 20 2014 - West Coast vs Collingwood at Subiaco Oval

Former North Melbourne player Adam Simpson was announced as the team's new coach for the 2014 season.^[31] Darren Glass was initially renamed as captain, but retired from football after round 12.^[35] He was replaced by five acting co-captains for the remainder of the season – Shannon Hurn, Josh Kennedy, Eric Mackenzie, Matt Priddis, and Scott Selwood.^[36] West Coast had a strong preseason and won their opening three matches, although they eventually finished in ninth position.^[37] During the season the club were labeled as "flat track bullies" due to beating lower placed teams by large margins, yet failing to defeat teams above them on the ladder.^[38] Midfielder Matt Priddis became the third Eagles player to win a Brownlow medal, winning the 2014 medal at the end of the season.^[39]

On December 7, 2014, Shannon Hurn was appointed as sole captain for 2015 and beyond.^[40] At the start of the 2015 season, West Coast lost two of their opening three games and suffered injuries to key players. Despite this, they went on to lose only three more games for the rest of the home and away season, finishing behind local rivals Fremantle in second position.^[41] The Eagles went on to defeat Hawthorn and North Melbourne in the qualifying and preliminary finals by 32 and 25 points respectively to qualify for the 2015 Grand Final, their first since 2006, only to lose to Hawthorn by 46 points. The following season ended up being a disappointment, with the team failing to produce another top 4 finish in spite of a late form reversal. In their elimination final, the heavily favoured Eagles were defeated at home by the Western Bulldogs, who went on to claim the 2016 premiership.^[42]

In 2017, West Coast finished in eighth position on the table. A thrilling finish against Adelaide in the last ever game at Subiaco was enough to put them into their third consecutive finals series under Simpson. Their percentage of 105.7% edged out Melbourne, who finished with the same number of wins and an almost identical percentage of 105.2%. Remarkably, their elimination final away against Port Adelaide ended up a tie after regulation time and was sent to extra time. The Eagles controversially won after the siren courtesy of a Luke Shuey goal. The following week they were soundly defeated away by Greater Western Sydney, in front of the lowest finals crowd in over 100 years.

Few predicted West Coast would contend in season 2018, with most having them outside the 8. After losing the inaugural game at the new Optus Stadium against the Sydney Swans, West Coast went on to win 10 in a row to surge to top of the ladder, including defeating Hawthorn at Etihad and Richmond, the eventual minor premiers. However, injuries to star forwards Josh Kennedy and Jack Darling saw them struggle, losing 3 games in a row including to Sydney for a second this time at the SCG. However they managed to rebound and stabilise. The Eagle's form at the MCG had long been criticised, and round 17 against an in form Collingwood who had won 7 of the previous matches was seen as a stern test. The match was fairly close throughout, until the Eagles got on top in the last ten minutes of the third quarter to win by a commanding 35 points. The victory was bittersweet, however, as the All-Australian ruckman Nic Naitanui went down with an ACL for the second time after his 2017 injury, putting him out for the rest of the season. In round 22 star midfielder Andrew Gaff was suspended for 8 weeks for a hit on Fremantle player Andrew Brayshaw. Following this many dismissed the Eagles, believing they were unable to win the flag. The following week there was a bright spot in a dark period, as Jeremy McGovern kicked a goal after the siren at Adelaide Oval to pinch the game from Port Adelaide, in similar circumstances to West Coast's win over Port in the 2017 elimination final.

The Eagles finished the home and away season second on the ladder with 16 wins and 6 losses - their best result since 2006 - earning the right to host the second qualifying final against third-placed Collingwood at Optus Stadium. Collingwood. led for most of the close, hard-fought match, before the Eagles again pulled away in the last quarter to win by 16 points.

In the second preliminary final, the Eagles faced the fifth-placed Melbourne Demons, a team whose impressive end-of-season form had begun with a victory over the Eagles at Optus Stadium in round 22. What was touted as a close-fought match instead became a blowout. West Coast led 10.9.69 to 0.6.6 at half time, Melbourne becoming the first team since 1927 to fail to score a goal in a half of finals football ^[43]. West Coast eventually won by 66 points, 121 to 55.

in the grand final, West Coast again played Collingwood, who had upset Richmond in the first preliminary final the week prior. In a match dubbed an all-time classic ^[44], Collingwood led by as much as 29 points in the first quarter, but the resilient Eagles managed to claw their way back into the contest, and with just over 2 minutes left, a brilliant play set up by a Jeremy McGovern intercept mark and a further sensational mark by first year player Liam Ryan saw Dom Sheed score a goal from a tight angle to put the Eagles 4 points in front. The Eagles went on to win 79 to 74, claiming their fourth premiership in front of 100,022 at the MCG. Luke Shuey won the Norm Smith Medal.

Subiaco Oval during a match against Fremantle in the 2008 NAB Cup.

Finance and ownership

The West Coast Eagles have been owned in full by the West Australian Football Commission (WAFC) since 1989. The club was originally owned and operated by Indian Pacific Limited, a publicly listed company that was delisted from the Australian Stock Exchange in 1990 after 75% of the shares were bought out by the WAFC.^[45] The last minority shareholders were bought out in 2000. West Coast pay approximately $3 million in rent to the WAFC for the use of Subiaco Oval, and 50–70% of overall profits.^[46] In 2001, a South African investment company, Southern African Investments Ltd. (SAIL), had proposed a AUD$25-million deal for a 49-percent stake in the club, with the bid being rejected in 2003.^[47] In 2011, it was reported that the AFL had lobbied to take over the ownership of both the Eagles and the Fremantle Football Club from the WAFC.^[48]

West Coast is currently one of the most financially successful clubs in the AFL, both in terms of revenue and profit.^[49][50] In May 2011, the club's total revenue for the previous season was reported as $45.6 million, equal first with Collingwood in the AFL.^[51] The club's football department spending over the 2011 season was reported as $18.6 million, second to Collingwood.^[52]

In the AFL annual report of 2017 the West Coast Eagles were fifth in terms of revenue across the Australian Football League. ($64,013,222) however all other clubs with higher revenue receive monies from poker machines.

Without poker income West Coast was number one (as above). Next was Richmond Football Club with $$58m

The Profit/loss ledger identified West Coast with a profit of $12,804,032. St Kilda were next with a profit of $5,267,414

In terms of assets, West Coast were again number one showing they had around $66m. Next was Hawthorn with $46.7m

Membership and attendance

The club's 2011 membership of 54,745 people was a club record, and the fourth-highest overall in the AFL. Membership numbers are limited by the capacity of Domain Stadium, which holds 43,500 seats, with 39,000 reserved exclusively for club members. In March 2012, The Weekend West reported that the cost of a West Coast Eagles adult club membership was $283, the most of any club in the AFL.^[53] The current waiting list for family memberships is over 9,000 people, with a total waiting list in excess of 20,000 people, or around four years.^[54] As of July 2015, the club reached a record high of over 60,000 members. It remains the club with the highest number of members in Western Australia, as well as being the 6th highest in the league.^[55]

With the advent of the new Optus stadium in 2017 at a cost of $1.8b (includes transport infrastructure) West Coast commenced playing all its home games at the new stadium in 2018. (It should be noted the AFL provided nil funds towards the new stadium even though it is the number one sport played at the stadium and generates significant income for the AFL) The highest individual crowd to watch a game at Optus Stadium is 59,608 which was between West Coast and Melbourne in the preliminary final of 2018.

During the 2018 season West Coast had the second highest home ground attendance of any AFL club averaging 53,250 to its 11 home games (Richmond 61,175 Home Ground MCG capacity over 100,000)

Currently West Coast has a membership of 80,000 however the capacity of Optus Oval is only 60,000

The number-one ticket holder is a position in most Australian Football League clubs given to a well-known supporter of the club. The West Coast Eagles' website lists "longevity of service", "passion for the club", "contribution to the community of Western Australia", and "the level at which they are recognised in their chosen profession by the community" as criteria for the position.^[56] Number-one ticket holders generally serve for two years.

In total, 455,899 people attended West Coast Eagles home games in 2011, equating to an average of 37,992 people per game.^[57] The highest-attended home game was against North Melbourne in the elimination final, which was attended by 41,790 people. The highest attendance for any game featuring West Coast was against Collingwood in the 2018 grand final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, attended by 100,022 people. In terms of television audience, on average 519,000 people viewed West Coast Eagles games in 2011, with a high of 1,074,000 viewers for the round 16 game against Geelong.^[58]

Club identity

Symbols and uniform

Jumper sponsors and manufacturers
Span	Manufacturer	Sponsor(s)
1987	Puma	Burswood
1988–90		SGIO
1991–97		SGIO and Hungry Jack's
1997–99		SGIO and BGC
1998–99		SGIO and Hungry Jack's
2000–02		SGIO
2003–11		SGIO and Hungry Jack's
2012–17		SGIO and Bankwest
2018–	ISC	SGIO and Hungry Jack's

The club's former logo, used prior to 1999. An older shield variation of this logo also exists.

The club's logo used from 1999–2017.

West Coast's official colours are royal blue and gold. The club had previously used navy blue in place of royal blue between 1999 and 2017, but returned to the club's original colours prior to the 2018 season.^[59]

The club's current logo features the head of a wedge-tailed eagle in the royal blue and gold colours of the club with the words "West Coast Eagles" written underneath. It was introduced prior to the 2018 season and aimed to present a more realistic portrayal of an eagle than the previous logo.^[60] The previous logo, in use between 1999 and 2017, featured a more heavily stylised wedge-tailed eagle. The club's current and former logos have all incorporated a stylised eagle's head, always facing east (i.e. towards the right, where east appears on most maps) to represent the eagle eyeing off its prey in the eastern states.^[61]

As part of the AFL's Mascot Manor program, a bald eagle club mascot, Rick "The Rock", was created in 2003 to promote the club to junior players. The mascot is in part named after the song.^[62] A real wedge-tailed eagle, Auzzie, has performed tricks at West Coast home games since 2007.^[63]

From 2018, the Eagles' home guernsey will see a return of the club's former 'royal blue' design used prior to 2000, updated to feature the club's new logo.^[59][64] The club's away strip, which already uses a variation of this design with the royal blue and gold colours swapped around, will be updated to feature the new logo but will otherwise remain relatively unchanged. Between 2000 and 2015, the club's home jumper design featured a stylised eagle on a tricolour of navy blue, white and gold.^[65] This jumper was introduced during the 2000 season along with a much criticised ochre away jumper as part of a rebrand of the club to coincide with the new millennium.^[66] The ochre jumper was later dropped at the end of 2002 in favour of an updated version of the club's former royal blue jumper, which was worn during their 1992 and 1994 premierships.^[67] Starting in 2010, the Eagles also wore a third, predominantly white guernsey in order to avoid visual clashes with teams who used similar colours.^[65] It was dropped as the club's designated clash jumper at the end of 2016, in favour of an updated version of their original 1987 "yellow peril" guernsey.^[68] During October 2015, the club announced a navy version of the royal blue jumper would replace the tricolour guernsey as the club's home uniform from 2016, and was used until the introduction of the current design.^[69]

West Coast's eagle mascot Rick "The Rock"

List of seasons

Club honours

Individual awards

Brownlow Medal winners

Chris Judd, winner of the 2004 Brownlow Medal

The Brownlow Medal is awarded to the best player in the competition during the home-and-away season as voted by the umpires:

Winners

• Chris Judd (2004)
• Ben Cousins (2005)
• Matt Priddis (2014)

Runners-up

• Craig Turley (1991)
• Peter Matera (1994, 1997)
• Ben Cousins (2003 (equal))
• Daniel Kerr (2005, 2007)
• Matt Priddis (2015)

Players and staff

Rivalries

The West Coast Eagles and Sydney Swans line up for the national anthem at the 2005 Grand Final.

The club's strongest rivalry is with the Fremantle Football Club, the only other AFL club based in Western Australia. The two teams play off in the Western Derby twice each home-and-away season. Overall, 42 derbies have been played, with the Eagles winning 22 and Fremantle winning 20.^[86] Derbies usually incorporate a sold-out crowd: the average crowd since the first derby was held in 1995 has been 39,910 people per game, with the average crowd for the past ten games 40,587 people per game, out of a total ground capacity of 43,600 people.^[87]

The club's earliest rivalry was with VFL powerhouse the Hawthorn Hawks. This rivalry stemmed from a series of memorable matches in the early 1990s, most notably the 1991 Grand Final. It was considered the first ever interstate rivalry in the competition, although it had fallen to irrelevance in later years.^[88] 24 years later in 2015, the two clubs met again in another grand Final.

Other rivalries include with Essendon,^[89] and a rivalry with the Sydney Swans, which stems from a series of six matches between 2005 and 2007, including both the 2005 and 2006 Grand Finals, in which the total points difference was 13, the lowest of all-time. This sequence included three one-point matches between the 2006 qualifying final and round one of the 2007 season.^[90]

Game and ladder records

• Biggest winning margin: 135 points - 26.21 (177) vs. Adelaide 5.12 (42), Subiaco Oval, 13 August 1995
• Biggest losing margin: 142 points - 1.12 (18) vs. Essendon 25.10 (160), Windy Hill, 15 July 1989
• Highest score: 29.18 (192) vs. Brisbane Bears, W.A.C.A., 17 April 1988
• Lowest score: 1.12 (18) vs. Essendon, Windy Hill, 15 July 1989
• Highest score conceded: 30.21 (201) vs. Sydney, S.C.G., 19 July 1987
• Lowest score conceded: 2.8 (20) vs. Melbourne, Subiaco Oval, 24 March 1991
• Highest aggregate score: 295 vs. Carlton, Princes Park, 18 April 1987
• Lowest aggregate score: 76 vs. Footscray, Whitten Oval, 23 August 1992
• Most goals in a match: Scott Cummings, 14 goals vs. Adelaide, W.A.C.A., 1 April 2000
• Highest crowd: 100,022 vs. Collingwood, MCG, 29 September 2018
• Lowest crowd: 4859 vs. Brisbane Bears, Carrara, 16 August 1987
• Highest WA crowd: 59,608 vs. Melbourne, Perth Stadium, 22nd September, 2018
• Lowest WA crowd: 12,803 vs. St. Kilda, W.A.C.A., 12 May 1988
• Highest home-and-away season crowd: 62,957 vs. Collingwood, MCG, 23 June 2012

See also

• Australian rules football in Western Australia
• List of West Coast Eagles coaches
• List of West Coast Eagles players
• List of West Coast Eagles records

References

Bibliography

• Lovett, Michael (Chief editor) (2010). AFL Record Season Guide. Geoff Slattery Media Group. ISBN 978-0-9806274-5-9.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to West Coast Eagles.

• Official website